_Dance with Dragons_
Aug. 16th, 2011 11:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI've praised Song of Ice and Fire for in general having people with much more consistent motivations than in most fantasy books, but by book five, it's not at all clear whether the couple of open mysteries raised in the first book were planned from the beginning or not (although they much more irrelevant by the end of the fifth book).
Most notably, the death of Jon Arryn. This was a big mystery in book 1, but by the time everyone is already at war, it doesn't seem to matter any more.
In book 1, Illyrio and Varys imply that Varys caused it.
In book 2, Pycelle admits to letting him die, but not to poisonning him.
Much later on, Lyssa Aryn says Littlefinger told her to poison him and tell Catelyn the Lannisters did it.
It's somewhat unsatisfying if the mystery that began the wars didn't matter, but it's hard to say that's not realistic. It's very unsatisfying if Martin changed his mind at some point leaving inconsistent hints (although I don't blame him for not being perfect), although inconsistent hints are also quite realistic.
I'm genuinely unsure which it is. Was it always supposed to have been Lyssa? Or was it originally supposed to have been someone else specific? Or had Martin not decided?
Part of the confusion is that it's not quite clear what Littlefinger or Varys are scheming for. Did Littlefinger really want to start a war? Or just have an excuse to manipulate Catelyn Stark? Or both?
I loved Varys' speach about being the one person in King's Landing who actually wanted peace and didn't care that much who was in charge, and he tried to even-handedly make himself useful to everyone. So I was very disappointed to see that apparently he'd been scheming to cause a civil war, even if it was so a Targyaren could return. It also raises all sorts of questions about the early books -- if Varys was deliberately stirring trouble, lots of things could have been due to him.
For instance, for all we know, he could have found out about Jaime and Cersei's incest and manufactured all the genetic evidence -- he could easily have noticed the dark hair colour of a few of Robert's bastards, faked some of the genealogy book, directed people searching to bastard infants who matched the theory whether they were Robert's or not.
Most notably, the death of Jon Arryn. This was a big mystery in book 1, but by the time everyone is already at war, it doesn't seem to matter any more.
In book 1, Illyrio and Varys imply that Varys caused it.
In book 2, Pycelle admits to letting him die, but not to poisonning him.
Much later on, Lyssa Aryn says Littlefinger told her to poison him and tell Catelyn the Lannisters did it.
It's somewhat unsatisfying if the mystery that began the wars didn't matter, but it's hard to say that's not realistic. It's very unsatisfying if Martin changed his mind at some point leaving inconsistent hints (although I don't blame him for not being perfect), although inconsistent hints are also quite realistic.
I'm genuinely unsure which it is. Was it always supposed to have been Lyssa? Or was it originally supposed to have been someone else specific? Or had Martin not decided?
Part of the confusion is that it's not quite clear what Littlefinger or Varys are scheming for. Did Littlefinger really want to start a war? Or just have an excuse to manipulate Catelyn Stark? Or both?
I loved Varys' speach about being the one person in King's Landing who actually wanted peace and didn't care that much who was in charge, and he tried to even-handedly make himself useful to everyone. So I was very disappointed to see that apparently he'd been scheming to cause a civil war, even if it was so a Targyaren could return. It also raises all sorts of questions about the early books -- if Varys was deliberately stirring trouble, lots of things could have been due to him.
For instance, for all we know, he could have found out about Jaime and Cersei's incest and manufactured all the genetic evidence -- he could easily have noticed the dark hair colour of a few of Robert's bastards, faked some of the genealogy book, directed people searching to bastard infants who matched the theory whether they were Robert's or not.